阅读克劳斯·曼 Klaus Mann在小说之家的作品!!! | |||
克劳斯·曼作为托马斯.曼的长子，克劳斯.曼很早就开始步入写作。二十 年代，他成为迷失在都市生活中的新一代德国作家的代表。三十年代， 他又成为抵制法西斯的文化运动的领袖。他与父亲的关系很糟，一部 分是因为父亲更卓越的才能，一部分是因为儿子对自己同性恋倾向更 自由的表达。不过对于同性恋所持的观点，克劳斯.曼并不比托马斯 .曼更少一些悲观。在他的自传《转折点》（1942）中，克劳斯.曼 写道：“作一个局外人是一种难以承受的羞辱。”
克劳斯.曼与他的姐姐艾丽卡.曼关系非常亲密。他甚至称他们 是孪生姐弟。艾丽卡.曼也是公开的同性恋者和反纳粹人士。她有两 次有名无实的婚姻，一次是跟演员兼导演古斯塔夫.格鲁根斯；另一 次是跟英国诗人Ｗ．Ｈ．奥登。奥登也是同性恋者，他们的结合只是 为了让艾丽卡曼拿到英国护照，以逃离德国。克劳斯.曼最著名的小 说《梅菲斯特》（1936）就是以格鲁根斯为原型，描写了一个以扮演 魔鬼梅菲斯特而著名的演员靠投机和出卖自己的灵魂，在纳粹权力系 统中升官发达的故事。
在克劳斯.曼的小说中，同性爱常常是无果而终，无论是把爱情 转移到异性对象身上（《安雅和伊丝特》，1925），或是屈服于同性 关系的徒劳无果（《亚历山大》，1930），或是继续忍受一种孤独的 存在（《生命前》，1925），末了总是凄惨无望。
在他最乐观的小说《圣舞》（1926）中，克劳斯.曼倡导一种由 男性间柏拉图式情谊，辛勤工作以及未实现的同性爱所构成的乌托邦 景观。在克劳斯.曼所处的时代，同性恋往往带著颓废的色彩。在 《火山》（1939）中，一个正在萌发的爱情被其中一个年轻男主角的 吸毒给毁坏了。《狂风夜，阴雨晨》（又名为《彼得和保罗》， 1947）是他最公开表现同性恋的小说，在他死时仍未完成。
由于时代的局限性，克劳斯.曼笔下的同性恋人物总是无法摆脱 作为另类而存在的枷锁。这些人物往往带著马格努斯.赫希费尔德 “第三性”理论的烙印：男同性恋者通常是女性化的艺术家，而女同 性恋者则是男性化的。他们在中产阶级社会触及不到的地方纵情狂欢， 但也正因此，他们走向分崩瓦解。克劳斯.曼笔下的异性恋者同样也 是一群边缘人，他们也坠入各种各样悲惨的深渊，只不过不是因为性 取向的问题。
不过，克劳斯.曼小说中的这种悲观无助与他的非小说作品（如 《安德列.纪德和现代思想的危机》，1943）以及他加入美队 （作为记者和翻译）投身反法西斯斗争的行为恰成对比。他关于恐同 攻击的散文《同性恋和法西斯》（1934）被左派用来声讨纳粹，已经 成为同性恋权益运动史中的一篇重要论文。
从1933年就开始生涯的克劳斯曼转向历史中，尤其是同性恋 者的历史中寻找小说创作的灵感：《亚历山大》，《悲怆交响曲》 （1935）， 《铁窗》（1937）。这些来自同性恋名人榜中的人物── 亚历山大大帝，柴科夫斯基，和巴伐利亚的路德维希二世──代表著 那些因为爱而与他们身处的社会相背离的人们。
克劳斯.曼悲观主义的作品似乎早已预示了他本人的结局。 1949年5月22日，在法国嘎纳，克劳斯.曼服用了过量的安眠药，结 束了自己疲惫的生命。
长期以来，克劳斯.曼以及他的许多作品被隐藏在他父亲巨大声 誉的阴影之下。但近年来，评论家们，尤其是德国的同性恋评论家们， 通过大量的研究，包括克劳斯.曼生前日记的整理出版和有关他的一 部传记，一个更清晰的轮廓呈现了出来，他不应该仅仅因为是大文豪 托马斯.曼有天赋而又悲剧性的同性恋儿子而被后人记住，他更应该 因为是他自己，克劳斯.曼，一个德国同性恋作家，评论家和活动家， 而被历史铭记。
Life and work
Born in Munich, Klaus Mann was the son of German writer Thomas Mann and his wife, Katia Pringsheim. His father was baptized as a Lutheran, while his mother was from a family of secular Jews. He began writing short stories in 1924 and the following year became drama critic for a Berlin newspaper. His first literary works were published in 1925.
Mann's early life was troubled. His homosexuality often made him the target of bigotry, and he had a difficult relationship with his father, who had little respect for him. After only a short time in various schools, he travelled with his sister Erika Mann, a year older than himself, around the world, and visited the US in 1927. In 1924 he had become engaged to his childhood friend Pamela Wedekind, the eldest daughter of the playwright Frank Wedekind, who was also a close friend of his sister Erika. The engagement was broken off in January 1928.
He travelled with Erika to North Africa in 1929. Around this time they made the acquaintance of Annemarie Schwarzenbach, a Swiss writer and photographer, who remained close to them for the next few years. Klaus made several trips abroad with Annemarie, the final one to a writers' congress in Moscow in 1934.
In 1932 Klaus wrote the first part of his autobiography, which was well received until Hitler came to power. In 1933 Klaus participated with Erika in a political cabaret, the Pepper-Mill, which came to the attention of the Nazi regime. To escape prosecution he left Germany in March 1933 for Paris, later visiting Amsterdam and Switzerland, where his family had a house. In November 1934 Klaus was stripped of German citizenship by the Nazi regime. He became a Czechoslovak citizen. In 1936, he moved to the United States, living in Princeton, New Jersey and New York. In the summer of 1937, he met his partner Thomas Quinn Curtiss, who was later a longtime film and theater reviewer for Variety and the International Herald Tribune. Mann became a US citizen in 1943.
During World War II, he served as a Staff Sergeant of the 5th US Army in Italy and in summer 1945 he was sent by the Stars and Stripes to report from Postwar-Germany.
Mann's most famous novel, Mephisto, was written in 1936 and first published in Amsterdam. The novel is a thinly-disguised portrait of his former brother-in-law, the actor Gustaf Gründgens. The literary scandal surrounding it made Mann posthumously famous in West Germany, as Gründgrens' adopted son brought a legal case to have the novel banned after its first publication in West Germany in the early 1960s. After seven years of legal hearings, the West German Supreme Court banned it by a vote of three to three, although it continued to be available in East Germany and abroad. The ban was lifted and the novel published in West Germany in 1981.
Mann's novel Der Vulkan is one of the 20th century's most famous novels about German exiles during WWII.
He died in Cannes of an overdose of sleeping pills. He was buried there in the Cimetière du Grand Jas.
Selected bibliography
* Der fromme Tanz, 1925
* Anja und Esther, 1925
* Revue zu Vieren, 1927
* Kind seiner Zeit, 1932
* Treffpunkt im Unendlichen, 1932
* Journey into Freedom, 1934
* Symphonie Pathétique, 1935
* Mephisto, 1936
* Der Vulkan, 1939
* The Turning Point, 1942
* André Gide and the Crisis of Modern Thought, 1943